"Poetry is emotion put into measure. The emotion must come by nature but the measure can be acquired by art." - Thomas Hardy
The Storm (Memory Poem)
Donna Survillo The rain falls down
Apples; rose red; soaked from the storm
Thunder crashes as the rain falls faster.
It was only meant to be a shower -
But this, my dear, this is a hurricane.
The winds are strong and uncontrollable.
Rain pours as your drowning in it's depth.
Thunder.
Lightening.
Silence.
It starts to die down.
The rain dries, clouds fade from the skies.
The sun comes out and the white flags go up.
Where I Belong (Ode)
Donna Survillo Lub-dub
Lub-dub
Lub-dub
Lub-dub
That's the sound of our hearts
When we lay close together
Your arm draped around me
My head nestled on your chest
Our eyes are heavy
It's late in the night
Thoughts peregrinate deep inside
'I never thought we'd get this far'
'I never thought you'd be the one'
'I never thought I'd be laying here with you'
Thoughts confine
Eyes close
Asleep in your arms
Asleep where I belong.
The Old You (Sonnet)
Donna Survillo We are so far from what we used to be.
Your soft and gentle touch is now long gone.
Feelings subside. An open gap. Can't see
why your sentiments, your feelings are gone.
Just come and save me from all of this pain.
My life is nothing without you in it
Stop messing around; tired of this game
Volare is my line so I'll live it.
Either take my hand and fly, or just leave
You were once someone I totally knew
But now you're different; tired of grieve.
Don't leave me here empty just tell me who;
Who are you? Where is the old you I know?
Please just bring him back, cause I love him so.
A thought from the poet: Donna Survillo
Most of my poems come from situations in my life that happen and I have strong feelings about. They talk about a specific person I have in mind at the time and things that may be going on in my life as well. I think of things that could represent my feelings and what’s going on through other ways so they don’t all sound the same. For example, in “The Storm,” I talk about a huge fight that wasn’t supposed to happen, but it did. The rain represents tears and the apples represent cheeks, red from crying. The lightening and thunder represent anger and yelling and then there’s silence. The crying (rain) stops and the white flags, which are frequently used as a symbol of surrender, go up. This shows the fight is over and everything is calm again. The reason why I chose the context of this poem such as using weather to represent what I was feeling at the time was because it was raining and I had a lot on my mind then. I began to realize how similar storms were to fights between two people and then I wrote “The Storm,” which is my favorite poem of the three.
A Myth of Devotion
Louise Glück
When Hades decided he loved this girl
he built for her a duplicate of earth,
everything the same, down to the meadow,
but with a bed added. Everything the same, including sunlight,
because it would be hard on a young girl
to go so quickly from bright light to utter darkness Gradually, he thought, he'd introduce the night,
first as the shadows of fluttering leaves.
Then moon, then stars. Then no moon, no stars.
Let Persephone get used to it slowly.
In the end, he thought, she'd find it comforting. A replica of earth
except there was love here.
Doesn't everyone want love? He waited many years,
building a world, watching
Persephone in the meadow.
Persephone, a smeller, a taster.
If you have one appetite, he thought,
you have them all. Doesn't everyone want to feel in the night
the beloved body, compass, polestar,
to hear the quiet breathing that says I am alive, that means also
you are alive, because you hear me,
you are here with me. And when one turns,
the other turns— That's what he felt, the lord of darkness,
looking at the world he had
constructed for Persephone. It never crossed his mind
that there'd be no more smelling here,
certainly no more eating. Guilt? Terror? The fear of love?
These things he couldn't imagine;
no lover ever imagines them. He dreams, he wonders what to call this place.
First he thinks: The New Hell. Then: The Garden.
In the end, he decides to name it Persephone's Girlhood. A soft light rising above the level meadow,
behind the bed. He takes her in his arms.
He wants to say I love you, nothing can hurt you but he thinks
this is a lie, so he says in the end you're dead, nothing can hurt you
which seems to him
a more promising beginning, more true.
Vespers
Louise Glück
In your extended absence, you permit me
use of earth, anticipating
some return on investment. I must report
failure in my assignment, principally
regarding the tomato plants.
I think I should not be encouraged to grow
tomatoes. Or, if I am, you should withhold
the heavy rains, the cold nights that come
so often here, while other regions get
twelve weeks of summer. All this
belongs to you: on the other hand,
I planted the seeds, I watched the first shoots
like wings tearing the soil, and it was my heart
broken by the blight, the black spot so quickly
multiplying in the rows. I doubt
you have a heart, in our understanding of
that term. You who do not discriminate
between the dead and the living, who are, in consequence,
immune to foreshadowing, you may not know
how much terror we bear, the spotted leaf,
the red leaves of the maple falling
even in August, in early darkness: I am responsible
for these vines.
The Red Poppy
Louise Glück
The great thing
is not having
a mind. Feelings:
oh, I have those; they
govern me. I have
a lord in heaven
called the sun, and open
for him, showing him
the fire of my own heart, fire
like his presence.
What could such glory be
if not a heart? Oh my brothers and sisters,
were you like me once, long ago,
before you were human? Did you
permit yourselves
to open once, who would never
open again? Because in truth
I am speaking now
the way you do. I speak
because I am shattered.
Analysis of Louise Glück & her poems:
In the poem, A Myth of Devotion, Louise Glück paints a picture for us. She tells us about Hades, the god of the dead, falling in love with a girl. He wants to give everything to this girl but she's from a completely different world than he is and everything is different where he is from. He figures that since she likes the light and beauty of her world, why wouldn't she like the darkness and sorrow of the underworld? Glück says, "If you have one appetite, he thought, you have them all." He wants to tell her that he loves her, but he knows he'd be lying to her. So he tells her that she's dead and since she is dead, nothing can hurt her, hoping that she sees it as a new beginning, believing that nothing is going to harm her.
Glück's poem, The Red Poppy, she talks about not having a mind, she has feelings that control her, but she has no mind. She doesn't have to think for herself and she doesn't have to make hard decisions about things in her life that would be hard to choose. She just hast to feel these things. Everything would be so much easier, in her eyes, if everything could be dealt with through feelings. Glück says, "I speak because I am shattered." She tells us about a feeling she has; a feeling of brokenness. Glück writes to us, expressing her feelings of brokenness and tells us that things would be easier if she were able to just deal with the feelings, not the logic of it.
Overall, Glück's poems are mainly about having strong feelings and not being able to get what you want, no matter how bad you want it. She provides us with a lot of symbolization where she brings us these strong feelings through personification or even through myths such as the famous Greek myth, Hades Takes a Wife (http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/grecoromanmyth1/a/mythslegends_2.htm). But no matter what way she presents it to her readers, she manages to get the point across. It may take a bit of research, but in the end, the picture of Glück's poems are crystal clear.
About the Poet: Louise Glück
Louise Glück was born in New York City, NY in 1943 (age 67). She was
raised on Long Island, NY. Glück has written and published a lot of books;many which have received prizes.
"Poetry is emotion put into measure. The emotion must come by nature but the measure can be acquired by art." - Thomas Hardy
The Storm (Memory Poem)
Donna SurvilloThe rain falls down
Apples; rose red; soaked from the storm
Thunder crashes as the rain falls faster.
It was only meant to be a shower -
But this, my dear, this is a hurricane.
The winds are strong and uncontrollable.
Rain pours as your drowning in it's depth.
Thunder.
Lightening.
Silence.
It starts to die down.
The rain dries, clouds fade from the skies.
The sun comes out and the white flags go up.
Where I Belong (Ode)
Donna SurvilloLub-dub
Lub-dub
Lub-dub
Lub-dub
That's the sound of our hearts
When we lay close together
Your arm draped around me
My head nestled on your chest
Our eyes are heavy
It's late in the night
Thoughts peregrinate deep inside
'I never thought we'd get this far'
'I never thought you'd be the one'
'I never thought I'd be laying here with you'
Thoughts confine
Eyes close
Asleep in your arms
Asleep where I belong.
The Old You (Sonnet)
Donna SurvilloWe are so far from what we used to be.
Your soft and gentle touch is now long gone.
Feelings subside. An open gap. Can't see
why your sentiments, your feelings are gone.
Just come and save me from all of this pain.
My life is nothing without you in it
Stop messing around; tired of this game
Volare is my line so I'll live it.
Either take my hand and fly, or just leave
You were once someone I totally knew
But now you're different; tired of grieve.
Don't leave me here empty just tell me who;
Who are you? Where is the old you I know?
Please just bring him back, cause I love him so.
A thought from the poet: Donna Survillo
Most of my poems come from situations in my life that happen and I have strong feelings about. They talk about a specific person I have in mind at the time and things that may be going on in my life as well. I think of things that could represent my feelings and what’s going on through other ways so they don’t all sound the same. For example, in “The Storm,” I talk about a huge fight that wasn’t supposed to happen, but it did. The rain represents tears and the apples represent cheeks, red from crying. The lightening and thunder represent anger and yelling and then there’s silence. The crying (rain) stops and the white flags, which are frequently used as a symbol of surrender, go up. This shows the fight is over and everything is calm again. The reason why I chose the context of this poem such as using weather to represent what I was feeling at the time was because it was raining and I had a lot on my mind then. I began to realize how similar storms were to fights between two people and then I wrote “The Storm,” which is my favorite poem of the three.A Myth of Devotion
Louise GlückWhen Hades decided he loved this girl
he built for her a duplicate of earth,
everything the same, down to the meadow,
but with a bed added.
Everything the same, including sunlight,
because it would be hard on a young girl
to go so quickly from bright light to utter darkness
Gradually, he thought, he'd introduce the night,
first as the shadows of fluttering leaves.
Then moon, then stars. Then no moon, no stars.
Let Persephone get used to it slowly.
In the end, he thought, she'd find it comforting.
A replica of earth
except there was love here.
Doesn't everyone want love?
He waited many years,
building a world, watching
Persephone in the meadow.
Persephone, a smeller, a taster.
If you have one appetite, he thought,
you have them all.
Doesn't everyone want to feel in the night
the beloved body, compass, polestar,
to hear the quiet breathing that says
I am alive, that means also
you are alive, because you hear me,
you are here with me. And when one turns,
the other turns—
That's what he felt, the lord of darkness,
looking at the world he had
constructed for Persephone. It never crossed his mind
that there'd be no more smelling here,
certainly no more eating.
Guilt? Terror? The fear of love?
These things he couldn't imagine;
no lover ever imagines them.
He dreams, he wonders what to call this place.
First he thinks: The New Hell. Then: The Garden.
In the end, he decides to name it
Persephone's Girlhood.
A soft light rising above the level meadow,
behind the bed. He takes her in his arms.
He wants to say I love you, nothing can hurt you
but he thinks
this is a lie, so he says in the end
you're dead, nothing can hurt you
which seems to him
a more promising beginning, more true.
Vespers
Louise GlückIn your extended absence, you permit me
use of earth, anticipating
some return on investment. I must report
failure in my assignment, principally
regarding the tomato plants.
I think I should not be encouraged to grow
tomatoes. Or, if I am, you should withhold
the heavy rains, the cold nights that come
so often here, while other regions get
twelve weeks of summer. All this
belongs to you: on the other hand,
I planted the seeds, I watched the first shoots
like wings tearing the soil, and it was my heart
broken by the blight, the black spot so quickly
multiplying in the rows. I doubt
you have a heart, in our understanding of
that term. You who do not discriminate
between the dead and the living, who are, in consequence,
immune to foreshadowing, you may not know
how much terror we bear, the spotted leaf,
the red leaves of the maple falling
even in August, in early darkness: I am responsible
for these vines.
The Red Poppy
Louise GlückThe great thing
is not having
a mind. Feelings:
oh, I have those; they
govern me. I have
a lord in heaven
called the sun, and open
for him, showing him
the fire of my own heart, fire
like his presence.
What could such glory be
if not a heart? Oh my brothers and sisters,
were you like me once, long ago,
before you were human? Did you
permit yourselves
to open once, who would never
open again? Because in truth
I am speaking now
the way you do. I speak
because I am shattered.
Analysis of Louise Glück & her poems:
In the poem, A Myth of Devotion, Louise Glück paints a picture for us. She tells us about Hades, the god of the dead, falling in love with a girl. He wants to give everything to this girl but she's from a completely different world than he is and everything is different where he is from. He figures that since she likes the light and beauty of her world, why wouldn't she like the darkness and sorrow of the underworld? Glück says, "If you have one appetite, he thought, you have them all." He wants to tell her that he loves her, but he knows he'd be lying to her. So he tells her that she's dead and since she is dead, nothing can hurt her, hoping that she sees it as a new beginning, believing that nothing is going to harm her.
Glück's poem, The Red Poppy, she talks about not having a mind, she has feelings that control her, but she has no mind. She doesn't have to think for herself and she doesn't have to make hard decisions about things in her life that would be hard to choose. She just hast to feel these things. Everything would be so much easier, in her eyes, if everything could be dealt with through feelings. Glück says, "I speak because I am shattered." She tells us about a feeling she has; a feeling of brokenness. Glück writes to us, expressing her feelings of brokenness and tells us that things would be easier if she were able to just deal with the feelings, not the logic of it.
Overall, Glück's poems are mainly about having strong feelings and not being able to get what you want, no matter how bad you want it. She provides us with a lot of symbolization where she brings us these strong feelings through personification or even through myths such as the famous Greek myth, Hades Takes a Wife (http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/grecoromanmyth1/a/mythslegends_2.htm). But no matter what way she presents it to her readers, she manages to get the point across. It may take a bit of research, but in the end, the picture of Glück's poems are crystal clear.
About the Poet: Louise Glück
Louise Glück was born in New York City, NY in 1943 (age 67). She was
raised on Long Island, NY. Glück has written and published a lot of books;many which have received prizes.
(http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/82)